Consumer Affairs & Relations

Bentonville, Ark. – Minimum wage increases scheduled to take effect in 24 states and Washington, D.C. will affect employees at more than 1,400 Wal-Mart stores and 200 Sam’s Club in the U.S. According to CNN, Wal-Mart said it has less than 6,000 employees currently earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and has already been planning to pay all employees more than the federal minimum wage.  

Retailing Today will be closed for Christmas, Dec. 24 through Dec. 26, and will publish again on Monday, Dec. 29. The editor and publisher of Retailing Today would like to wish you and your families very best wishes for a happy, healthy and joyous holiday.

Cheers, Mike Troy Editor, Retailing Today

Chain Store Age wishes everyone a safe and happy holiday!  Our offices will be closed Wednesday, December 24th,  Thursday, December 25th and Friday, December, December 26th.  We will return to normal business hours on Monday, December 29th.  We wish you and your family a joyous and peaceful holiday season!

Family Dollar delayed a shareholder vote on a potential acquisition by Dollar Tree until Jan. 22 in a move that allows more time to contemplate a rival bid from Dollar General.

Family Dollar convened as planned on Tuesday and, based on insufficient votes, subsequently adjourned its Special Meeting of Stockholders on the proposed transaction with Dollar Tree.

A federal judge has ruled that customers suing Target for last year’s data breach may move forward with their claims.

U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson in St. Paul, Minn., dismissed claims by plaintiffs in certain states but largely denied Target's request to toss out the proposed class action lawsuit.

Magnuson rejected Target's argument that the consumers lacked standing to sue because they could not establish any injury.

Framingham, Mass. – About 1.16 million customer payment cards may have been exposed in a security breach at Staples Inc. earlier this year. In an update on the breach situation, Staples said that criminals deployed malware to some POS systems at 115 of its more than 1,400 U.S. retail stores, providing access to data from purchases made from July 20 through Sept. 16, 2014. 

PLEASANTON, Calif. - For the second year in a row, Safeway Inc. has received a perfect score of 100% on the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices pertinent to LGBT equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.  

Time and again in 2014 the vulnerability of retailers’ information systems became apparent with Staples the latest major chain forced to admit an inability to protect customers’ personal information.

Now Staples has released more information about its data breach in September.